The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Bloomberg reports on a recent survey from BloomReach, which found that 55% of 2,000 people surveyed visit Amazon first when searching for products, while 28% of shoppers turn to search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, as a starting point.

The number of people window-shopping, if you will, on Amazon represents an 11% increase over the same survey results in 2015.

“Amazon has become the reference point for shoppers,” Jason Seeba, head of marketing for BloomReach, tells Bloomberg. “Shoppers will go to Amazon first to find a product and check prices.”

Last year, 44% of consumers began product searches with Amazon, while 34% started with search engines.

Trips to physical retailers for browsing and comparison shopping continues to decline, the survey found, with just 16% of shoppers making trips to big box stores or mall, down from 21% last year.

Those rates aren’t exactly welcome news for retailers like Walmart and Target, which have struggled in recent years to compete with Amazon.

Still, Walmart’s recent $3 billion purchase of Jet.com could propel the company toward a more even playing field. The retailer also this year launched a $50/year free-shipping option called ShippingPass, to compete with Amazon’s $99/year (or $10/month) Prime membership that includes free two-day shipping on thousands of products.

But ShippingPass and the addition of Jet.com to its portfolio might not be enough to help Walmart move past Amazon’s appeal, analysts says, noting that the e-commerce giant continues to add “layers” to its services.

“Prime members have the Amazon app on the front screen of their smartphones. That definitely hurts Walmart,” John Blackledge, an analyst at Cowen & Co. Blackledge, told Bloomberg.